The Douglas C. Greene Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Southeast Missouri State University announces the fourth annual Southeast Innovation Challenge to coincide with this years Global Entrepreneurship Week Nov. 17-23.
The competition gives current students the opportunity to be heard and win prizes for providing an innovative solution to a student campus experience.
Interested students are required to attend one of the informational sessions being held at Catapult Creative House at 612 Broadway at noon on Oct. 2, Oct. 9, or Oct. 16. More information, including judging criteria and submission deadlines, is available online atcatapultsemo.com/sic.
The Southeast Innovation Challenge is open to teams of two to three undergraduate students enrolled in at least 12 hours and graduate students enrolled in at least six hours. Teams must attend an information session held at Catapult Creative House and complete a registration form online by Oct. 18 to register their teams. After teams have researched and developed their solutions, they must submit a two- to three-page Executive Summary online by Nov. 6 for a panel of judges to review and score based on how impactful, innovative and feasible the idea is. Diversity among majors on the team is strongly encouraged and will be rewarded with additional points in the judging process.
The top three teams will be notified by Nov. 13 and will present their ideas at a Common Hour program scheduled on Nov. 20 in Glenn Auditorium of Dempster Hall. The judges will then award first-, second- and third-place with prizes and the audience will vote to select a Peoples Choice winner to receive an additional prize. The prizes consist of $750, $500 and $250, less applicable taxes, for first-, second-, and third-place respectively to be split amongst team members. The Peoples Choice winner will receive a gift bag of Redhawks memorabilia.
The 2018 winners were:
First place and Peoples Choice Award:
Hackapult Lisa Goette and Katrien Gill
Second place:
Spread Awareness & Create Organization Jacob Scissors, Quinn Hume and Samuel Kehrer
Third place:
Rooftop Community Garden Goette, Vanessa Pendergrass and Whitney Whiteside
Hackapult has been renamed the Downtown Hackathon and will be held in February 2020 in conjunction with local businesses.